The Legend of Spyro The Final Resistance
by raven-2007
Summary: Spyro, Cynder and Sparx continue on their quest to defeat the Dark Master with the help of both likely and unlikely allies, following their release from the crystal Spyro froze them in at the end of 'The Eternal Night'. My version of 'Dawn of the Dragon'.
1. Chapter 1 The Wandering Apes

THE LEGEND OF SPYRO – THE FINAL RESISTANCE

Disclaimer: I do not own Spyro. By using that famous search engine known as Google, I've found out that Spyro is owned by Sierra, apparently. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong :)

This story assumes you are aware of the plots of the games in the 'The Legend of Spyro' series.

The beginning of chapter one takes place a couple of days after their release from the magical crystal in Malefor Mountain, and is sort of like my own version of 'Dawn of the Dragon'. They had been stuck in the crystal for 3 years since the end of 'The Legend of Spyro - The Eternal Night', prior to their release by a cheetah revealing himself to be the 'ally' who had written them the letter on Scabb's ship, Hunter. I will be writing up new chapters and posting them when I get free time.

Also, as I am writing this before 'Dawn of the Dragon' is released, the story will probably have little in common with the dominant themes of 'Dawn of the Dragon' when it is released. I wish I could have thought up a better title for this fanfic, but I'm feeling too inventive right now.

If you get that indescribable urge to comment/critique the story, then you may do so, I would be grateful for that. Thank you!

Chapter 1 – The wandering apes.

"It's getting light, Sparx. We'd better move on."

Spyro spoke this as he sat in the grass, gazing towards the horizon in the distance, which was becoming brighter and brighter with almost each second. The last of the golden hue that had adorned the Cirrus clouds had left them now, leaving them a pearly white as the dawn sky grew brighter and brighter. The Dark Master may have seized control of the land, thought Spyro, but that didn't make it any the less breath-taking.

Presently, Sparx was sleeping on a large mushroom, which protected him from the cold, dewy grass. They had all slept amongst a small group of isolated trees surrounding a natural spring, in an otherwise desolate red plain. Cynder had gone to get a drink nearby, and Spyro had woken Sparx up just moments ago, but Sparx, unused to these early starts, had drifted off again. Spyro shuffled over to him and nuzzled the dragonfly gently to rouse him, which drew a negative remark from him.

"UGH! Your nose is SO cold and wet! You just couldn't help yourself, you great pudgy thing, could you?"

Spyro suppressed a smirk. "Pudgy, huh? Well I'd prefer that to looking like a big ball glued to the top of a pogo stick. C'mon, at the rate you're going, half the day will have passed. We need to meet Hunter at the hill to the north, when the sun is overhead."

"That's a type of sarcastic thing that _I_ would normally say, not you! You don't make it sound right. And how do you expect me to be awake and working on an empty stomach? We didn't get anything to eat yesterday, fleeing for our lives from those Scorpion things, and I'm hungry!" Sparx retorted.

"You don't see us whinging, Sparx." said a cool female voice behind him.

Sparx jumped off his spotted toadstool (or flew, rather) so fast that Spyro didn't even see where he had gone to for a few seconds. He turned his attention to a black shape walking through the dewy grass towards them.

"Oh, hey Cynder. Did you see any of the Dark Master's apes nearby?" Spyro said.

"No." She shook her head. "I didn't smell them either. All seems clear. Trust me, you get to know that smell after being with them a while…"

Sparx wasn't interested in Cynder or what she had to say. He never was. Presently, he interrupted them: "Geez, I feel as though I could just eat a whole rabble of butterflies."

"And I feel as though I could eat a juicy golden dragonfly." Cynder said.

Spyro laughed, but stopped when Sparx gave him a warning look. Before Sparx could retort something along the lines of "meant to be on my side", Spyro said quickly "Haha. The butterflies will be out later, when day has warmed up more, Sparx. Now come on! You slept enough in the crystal as it is." And then, turning to Cynder, Spyro said in a softer voice: "Have you finished your patrol, Cynder?"

"Yes, there's nothing nearby to see us as we take off, Spyro."

And with these words, Spyro turned to face the sun, and his wings shot out, extending fully. The golden sun was now creeping over the horizon, and, from Cynder's point of view, the sun was shining through the thin membrane that made up Spyro's wings. Cynder thought for a minute that he looked majestically beautiful, with his wings lit up brightly like red luminescent sails. But then Cynder came back to her senses, and prepared herself to take off as well.

The wind was calm, but the air was cool as Cynder, Sparx and Spyro rose as a trio out of the Oasis into the radiant morning sky. Soon, they were high enough so that any ground spies working for the Dark Master could easily be mistaken into thinking they were large birds, or Dreadwings. Thinking of Dreadwings, thought Spyro, they had to be careful of them – just because they were high above the ground didn't make them invulnerable to detection. Spyro still hadn't regained his powers since the crystal, and he was worried. It was just like after he had defeated Cynder at the Convexity. But he had nothing to worry about, the plains stretched out in all directions, and there was nothing in them, other than the odd tree, and the small area of lush greenery they had just departed from.

They had to see Hunter for a report on the progress of the Dark Master's forces. Hunter, who had freed them from Spyro's time crystal days earlier, introduced himself, and revealed that he had infiltrated the Dark Master's ranks, and was seen by the apes as one of them, and as a skillful fighter (due to his archery skills) in their war they were waging on behalf of the Dark Master. However, Hunter was not one of them. He was a double agent, and had previously lurked quietly on the fringe of meetings as Gaul went through one of those impressive, rousing speeches of his, listening as Gaul chronicled their plans for victory. Then he would use what he had learned to secretly undermine their plans in any way he could. Before leaving Spyro, Cynder and Sparx outside Malefor Mountain, Hunter said he could meet them at midday when the sun was overhead in 5 days time, immediately after the night of the full moon, where he could give the first of hopefully many reports of the latest inside information on the Dark Master. This much Spyro had learned in the revealing conversation at Malefor Mountain, and therefore he gave Hunter his tentative trust. But it was difficult for him and the others to tell truth from lies, nevertheless.

Spyro, presently, was thinking of seeing the Chronicler about his powers, but then his thoughts of the Chronicler stoked thoughts of the other dragons, the elders… Cyril, Volteer, Terrador, and, of course, Ignitus. Ignitus, the first ally they had met, when he and Sparx set out on what was initially a quest to find where Spyro came from… and which morphed into one to save his fellow dragons from the Dark Master's brutal greed for power. A whole host of thoughts made their way into Spyro's mind at this point, but then he was forced to bring his attention onto Cynder, who had indicated something of interest below.

At first, Spyro had mistaken them for Wildebeests (making his mouth water – he was just as hungry as Sparx, and gems alone weren't enough to sustain him). But then he made out the shapes of a small group of ragged-looking apes walking west through the auburn plains.

Spyro gazed at them as they flew over the apes. The apes didn't even bother yelling or jumping or throwing dynamite as they walked past. In fact, they didn't even appear to be armed. They looked despondent and pitiful, and on closer inspection, it looked as though there was congealed blood in their matted fur. It was also highly unusual for them to be seen this far away from their territory without appearing to have any organization or a particular purpose. Spyro looked over at Cynder, intending to ask her about her thoughts on what was going on, but was surprised to see her eyes bulging, her mouth partially open, and her face arranged into a look of absolute shock on her face. Spyro was confused, and made a note to himself to find out more from her, shortly.

"Well, that's a first. For once I can look at them without having to show them who's boss." Sparx said, flying up next to Spyro's face.

"You never did fight them yourself, Sparx." Spyro said vaguely. His thoughts were still on the apes.

"Who, the Dark Master's guys? Hey, what about Sniff? What did I do to him, Spyro?"

"Well, that was one, and you did a really good job there, Sparx… but that was just one enemy. What about the other two hundred and fifty thousand?"

"Huh! I can take them any – "

Sparx was then buffeted by a sudden gust of wind, blowing him considerably behind Spyro and Cynder. Spyro smiled to himself, welcoming the peace from Sparx's incessant bragging. While Spyro loved Sparx as his foster brother, it didn't mean he always enjoyed listening to his inflated ego.

While Sparx was flying furiously, trying to catch up again, Spyro glanced over at Cynder, to his right. Cynder didn't really talk much when Sparx was around, and she wasn't talking now. Perhaps a result of Sparx's continuous comments about her being an 'evil she-dragon'. Her remarks to Sparx earlier on were one of a few exceptions. She had changed so much, and yet she had changed not at all, in the time that had passed by since the fight against Gaul. Her horns were sharp and long, as opposed to the short stubs she had previously, and her body had lengthened out. She had become more confident, and appeared to be beginning to get over her period of corruption under the Dark Master's regime, but Spyro suspected it still affected her in subtle ways. He glanced up at the sun. It wasn't far off from being overhead, indicating that midday was near.

"Cynder, what do you think about the apes back there?"

Cynder just shook her head and flew slightly ahead of Spyro, so it wasn't possible for him to see her face again, to discern what she might be thinking.

"As I was saying, I can take them on anyday. But you like to hog them for yourself, so I never get a chance." Sparx said, having caught up to Spyro's face again.

Spyro shook his head. "Anyway Sparx, what do you think of those apes?"

"They're always doing stuff we're unsure about. It gives me the creeps, dude."

"Well, even the Dark Master himself is so mysterious. We don't know what he looks like, what his abilities are… we don't even know his name. I think this mysteriousness and uncertainty is what makes us afraid… our fear is of the unknown." Spyro said in a thoughtful tone.

"So you're spouting wisdom yet again, huh? Hey, look!"

Spyro glanced at Sparx, and he said "No, not at me, look down below! Ahoy there! Geez, I'm glad we didn't have to fly a full day today. My wings still hurt from being frozen for so long."

Spyro and Cynder looked towards the top of a rocky hill in an otherwise featureless landscape. Appearing as a bright spot contrasting against the rippling grass, was Hunter.


	2. Chapter 2 Hunter's news

I'm unsure whether to have a break/space between every little section and change in speaker, like I have done in chapter one… or have no breaks, as I've done in this chapter. (except when the scene changes or time passes). Oh well, I suppose it's not a biggie to worry about.  
The 'Bloom' ability mentioned here isn't my own unique idea. A Spyroforum member described to me the 'Bloom' technique that Amaterasu has in the Playstation 2/Wii game, Okami. I just took the concept and twisted it to suit my own purposes here. :)  
Also, in this story, gems are used for energy and the ability to use magical abilities, but food is also needed for extra energy and nutrition. But anyway here's chapter 2, finally.

Chapter 2 – Hunter's news

Spyro alighted in a dirt clearing between two gnarly looking trees. Cynder came down quite fast next to Spyro in a whoosh of red dust, and Sparx followed when the dust had cleared.  
Hunter had been on top of a rocky outcrop which made the highest point of the hill, a short distance from this clearing. Spyro looked up and saw that Hunter was no longer there, and Spyro assumed he was coming down to greet them. But he couldn't see Hunter anywhere. He was easy to see from the air, because his yellow fur stood him out against the red rock, but in the long yellow grass that demarcated the edge of their clearing, it was impossible to spot him.  
"Where's Hunter gone?" asked Spyro.  
Cynder pointed out to the grass with her middle claw, and Spyro, focusing hard, suddenly spotted Hunter wading through the grass towards them.  
"How do you see that easy, Cynder?"  
"I had to, if I wanted to find my enemies, when I was… big." Cynder ended awkwardly.  
"Yeah, you wouldn't happen to mean 'to find US', would you?" Sparx interjected.  
"Shh…" Spyro urged Sparx, while thinking, '_you'll have to do better than that if you don't want to be snuck up upon, Spyro.'_  
Hunter walked gracefully out of the grass and over to them, holding a bow in his right hand, his white paws now tinged with red dust, and with a bandage around his forehead.  
"Hey Hunter! I couldn't see you for a moment just before. You blend in really well with the grass." Spyro said.  
"Well, that's what all good hunters have to do, Spyro." said Hunter proudly. "Y'know… we have to be stealthy and our arrow aim has to be true." Hunter was obviously enjoying the praise being lapped upon him. "How do you think I managed to get you two those prize Eagles?"  
Hunter pointed with his bow, and following the direction he indicated, Spyro saw four brown and white birds with arrows sticking out of their chests. At the sight of them, Spyro's stomach gave a terrible pang of hunger and he realized he was just as hungry as Sparx said he was himself, earlier that morning.  
"Oh, and here's the gems I managed to salvage from them. You might need them as an energy boost as well." Spyro tore his eyes from the beautiful sight of the Eagles to see Hunter carelessly tossiong the gems into the dirt, covering their shiny surfaces with a fine layer of dust."  
"Thanks, Hunter." Spyro said in a moved voice. He was too overwhelmed by Hunter's caring for them to say anything more.  
"Well thanks for forgetting me. I'll just skulk over here in the grass and blend in with the grass as well. It's not like anyone is thinking of me or anything." Sparx buzzed away a short distance, clearly annoyed at his friends and comrade.  
"Hey buddy, there's some large white Sunocorp Butterflies in that big tree halfway down the hill." Hunter called out to Sparx.  
"Oh, well that's me gone, then. Don't miss me!" and with that, Sparx buzzed out of the clearing.  
"Er, how's the bruises going, Hunter?" Cynder asked quietly.  
"What? Oh, it's going good, the bumps have gone right down now. But don't worry about it, everything's cool." Hunter ran his hand over the bandage covering his forehead which concealed these bruises and bumps, something he had received by a very wary and cynical Cynder when Hunter had first released them from the magical Crystal.  
Spyro and Cynder drew the gems into their bodies, then began feasting on the eagles messily, almost like Greyhounds at a racetrack that had finally caught the rabbit that they chased.  
"You've got awesome navigation skills, and you were here right on time." Hunter said to Spyro and Cynder as they ate. "Impressive, dude. Sorry to make you's fly all this way just to see me, but I wanted to be somewhere where I could hide easily while waiting for you, like in the long yellow grass on this hill. The grass on the plains is too short and sparse, and I would be easily seen against the red dirt there. Course, I could've just rolled in that red filth and made my whole body look like what my feet do now, and blend in with the dirt like that, but man, that ruins a good clean fur coat, and what a waste of time."  
"Dat's 'ine, 'Unner" Spyro said through his chewing.

When they had finished eating, they had little chunks of meat covering their cheeks and chins. Spyro turned to Cynder who was on his left and, careful not to lock horns with her, he licked bits of meat off Cynder's chin and collar. Cynder froze still, suddenly overcome again by that same strange feeling that she felt earlier in the morning when looking at Spyro as he prepared to take off. It was a curious feeling, and she remembered looking at Spyro as though in a different way, but she couldn't put her claw on what just what the feeling was.  
"Lets move into the shade of the tree over there, it's stifling hot now, and my fur is like a coat that I can't take off." said Hunter. They all moved across into the shadow of the gnarly tree that sat the edge of the clearing. Spyro thought of adorning it by setting it on fire, but all that came out of his maw was hot breathe, which was what he expected.  
"Well, now you get to hear the riveting news," Hunter started, when Spyro had stopped trying to breath dragon-breathe on the tree, but Spyro interrupted.  
"Sorry Hunter, but I've just remembered something that I was thinking about earlier. What's the Dark Master's name?" Spyro asked. He would have asked Cynder earlier while they where flying, but Cynder had given the impression that she didn't want to talk about it.  
"Well it's Malefor, Spyro. Sounds kinda creepy, huh? But don't worry, you're the purple dragon in the legend! You can do anything! It'll be a piece of cake for you, Spyro. You'll have no problems." Said Hunter.  
"Don't be so sure, Hunter. I may be mentioned in some legend, but I still have no idea how I'm going to defeat him. You might be overestimating my abilities." Spyro stated darkly. "But thanks for the name."  
"Well anyway, here's what's his plans are. Malefor is seeking to find a very special dragon he hopes to bring over to his side, so he can use her for his own purposes! See?"  
"Really? More dragons? That's good," Spyro said excitedly. "But why's she so special to the Dark Master?"  
Hunter scratched his head. "Gaahhh, sorry I forgot to say who she was. I'm terrible at this story-telling. She is a dragon who has this special ability called 'Bloom', which she uses to bring back… err… _orgaminsams_…" Hunter screwed up his faced in concentration, "Sorry, err, 'organisms', back to their full health. Plants and animals and allsorts! But anyway, Malefor is wanting to find and use her to heal up his allies when they get injured by your lot. So, whaddya say? Do you think you can find her and get her to leave her hiding spot, because it won't be a hiding spot for much longer. Malefor has information that she is hiding in a cave system along the Galactos cliffs on the coastline of the mainland. So she might be gettin' hunted down an' not know about it!"  
"Ok. But what's her name?" asked Spyro.  
"Oh of course, you'll need that. It's 'Limista.'"  
"I've heard of her," Cynder said suddenly. The others looked at her. "I was supposed to seek her out after I'd resurrected my – 'former' – master, and killed off the Guardians," her voice become quiet and full of regret now, "But I never got around to it, for obvious reasons." she smiled at Spyro now, who returned it enthusiastically before turning back to Hunter.  
"Right. So we should go and find this 'Limista' somewhere along the mainland coast, hiding in a cave in a cliff just behind a beach, and tell her to leave and go elsewhere?"  
"Yep, that's pretty much it buddy. Or you could ask her to join your group, I'm sure her bloom thingy would be useful."  
"Hunter, why don't you join us as well? I haven't got my abilities back yet, that's what I was trying to do to that tree. We were also attacked by Scorpions yesterday. It proved just how vulnerable we are. Cynder can fight, but when we get overwhelmed and I can't use my magic against them, it can get dicey for us sometimes. Your archery skills would come in useful." Spyro said, nodding his head at the bow in Hunter's hand.  
"Err.. gee thanks for the offer. But if one of those Apes or someone on Malefor's side saw me associatin' with ya, then I'd be revealed as a traitor, and we can't have that, can we? I wouldn't be able to feed ya any more information. I have faith that your powers will return, Spyro. And you will defeat the Dark Master." Hunter finished, looking at Spyro with a look of confidence in the purple dragon, that Spyro hoped would end up being justified.  
"Speaking of Apes, we saw some of them walking across the plains on our way here. They weren't acting as they normally do. Why would that be?" asked Spyro.  
A curious expression crossed Cynder's face at this point, but by the time Spyro turned his head to look at her properly, her face appeared normal again.  
Hunter paused for a moment, scratching the end of his bow in the red dirt, thinking of a response. "Hmm, I've noticed that myself. Something seems to have been happening with them ever since the death of their King, Gaul. That would have hurt them hard. Also, following his death, and Malefor's eventual revival into this world, he abused the Apes for being such a failure to him, for allowing you to live. Perhaps they are in some sorta turmoil following all those events. They've excluded me from their meetings now, (as I am not an Ape, though I'm just as hairy as them), and therefore I guess they must be talking about something that it sensitive to them. But I really don't know Spyro. Good point. Now, how about I meet you again at Dante's Freezer at midnight, twelve days from now? You already know where that is, and it'll be easy for me to get to. Nighttime is best for me, as no-one can see me with you easily in the dark."  
"Ok, Hunter. Sounds like a plan."  
"Ah look, here comes your friend! Now I must leave you and go find my arrow quiver, I've just realized I've forgotten them at the base of the tree where the Eagles were roosting. Typical of me. Take care, eh?" And finishing on that note, Hunter turned and bounded through the grass, over the rocks as nimbly as a mountain lion, and disappeared over the top.  
"I wish I was as agile as he was" Spyro said to himself.  
"So, which way are we to go?" Cynder said, looking around. "I think I'll let you lead the way Spyro."  
Sparx flew up to Spyro and Cynder with a burp, and an air of contentment about him.  
"Aaahhhhh, my compliments to the chef, So, what'd I miss?"  
Spyro looked at Sparx. "I'll tell you on the way, Sparx. Let's go."


	3. Chapter 3 Time for some fun

Chapter 3 – Time for some fun.

Cynder found herself in a strange world, pitch black. The ground beneath her paws felt like hard concrete, she got that idea by scratching her talons against it, but being unable to see, she couldn't tell. She breathed a stream of fire to try and see what she could make of her surroundings. In the brief light, she saw the ground stretch out in all directions, and an elongated trough full of some sort of liquid nearby. She walked over to the trough, and breathed more fire, to get a better view of what was inside it. Her flame ignited the liquid unexpectedly, and she stepped back. She thought it was strange. But the flame in the trough was much brighter than her fire breathe, so she could now make out that the smooth concrete ground seemed to stretch on forever.  
"Cynderrr…." growled a soft voice suddenly. Cynder convulsed, she knew that voice. But she couldn't see where it was coming from. She shook from head to paw.  
"Cynder… come to me. I will make you great again…"  
"Huh," thought Cynder bravely to herself, "I've already been 'great', and chosen against it. I won't even go into why I chose that! So what makes you think I want to go back, Malefor?"  
"Because I need you…" said the voice, as though it could read Cynder's thoughts. "…and you need me…"  
Cynder looked around her, not that she could see anything.  
"I'm free again, and with you by my side, we can help each other do great things. Your knowledge of the Apes is an asset to me. And I will help you become so much more than what you are now…"  
Cynder tried to mentally resist these callings, but now there was a funny mist shrouding her, and she couldn't help but breathe it in. The fire in the trough became obscure in the mist, and then extinguished, leaving Cynder blind again. Her mind became clouded as though the mist was in there too, and she felt befuddled. Was it the mist doing this to her? A strong desire rose within her, an urge that scared her, as she recognised it as an old desire born out of selfishness, of greed… and of a desire to make her Master great and powerful.  
"Well, I'll think about it…" she said uncertainly to the mist, finding it difficult to think straight.  
"Well done. I will be seeing you again."  
Cynder's consciousness was extinguished, and she knew no more, until after an eternity, she opened her eyes, and saw the starry sky above her, and heard Spyro snoring lightly nearby. It was a nightmare. Just a nightmare. Cynder waited until her heart had stopped pumping furiously, then closed her eyes, and fell into slumber again.

"GEEEEZ, this so soooooo-ooo _boring_," Sparx drawled.  
"Oh really? Well let's have a spelling contest!" Sparx said to himself, now in a higher enthusiastic voice.  
"What? I suck at those. I never did my spelling homework. And that's even more boring."  
"That's your fault. Your mum did tell you over and over again, to focus more at it. If you applied yourself to your homework like Spyro did to his training, you'd cinch this. Now, spell 'boring.'"  
"Oh, that one's easy! Easier than working out Volteer's riddles. Bee… Oh…  
Are…Enn… sorry, I mean Eye…"  
"Ok I get your point Sparx!" interjected Spyro, who was flying beside him.  
"You know talking to yourself is the first sign of madness?" Cynder told Sparx, approaching him from behind.  
Sparx stuck his tiny tongue out at Cynder. "No-one did ask you. You'd know all about madness, wouldn't ya? And about time you noticed, Spyro! I'm bored stiff. Do you know how long the Galactos cliffs are? We could spend our lives searching this rock wall and not find as much as a weasel hole."  
Spyro sighed, and continued his eagle-eyed search of the cliff-face. Well, at least Cynder was starting to talk more to Sparx, but Spyro wished Sparx would stop berating Cynder, and treating her as though she was an evil witch. Really, that much time had passed since the battle at Convexity…  
The waves pounded against the rocky base of the cliffs, sending water flying everywhere. The noise of this was soothing at first, but now it irritated Spyro, just as listening to Sparx's dialogue with himself and searching these cliffs irritated him. Still, there was much at stake, and he wouldn't just abandon one of his kind because a long search tired him. Besides, he was eager to meet another dragon…  
He allowed an updraught that was blowing up the cliff face to catch his red wings and carry him higher above his friends, so he could see the cliff's upper section better. But this proved just as fruitless.  
Sparx was flying down towards the sea spray that was being periodically flung into the air by the wave's impact with the rocks. He flew through the lighter sea spray and flew up to Spyro, tiny beads of water flying off his thin buzzing wings.  
Yeah man, that was fun!" said a dripping Sparx, looking at Spyro. "You should have come, Spyro!"  
Spyro looked at Sparx, and laughed at the sight of his antennae, which were plastered by water to his forehead. But then Spyro realized he had to change direction suddenly, he was about to fly into the cliffface, which had jutted out into a peninsula ahead of them. He beat his wings hard and rose steadily towards the clifftop, scaring some roosting Gulls into flight as he swept past their craggy overhang. Spyro soared down the other side of the peninsula to follow the coast again, and turned in the air to look for Cynder. Waves were smashing into the rocky cliff base, sending foam and spray in all directions, far below him. He averted his eyes and looked further out to sea, at a wave that was out in the deeper water, and what he saw caused him his jaws to drop open.  
Spyro could see Cynder just outside the wave barrel. She was flying along the wave barrel just where the top of the wave was starting to spill over the top of her body. The tip of her wing skimmed the side of the wave, it was an effortless glide, but being unable to beat her wings inside the wave barrel she soon ran out of momentum and crashed into the sea, and the wave crashed over her. When the wave was closer to shore, Cynder shot out of the water and flew up to the others, laughing.  
Spyro laughed with her, and folded his wings and descended, aiming for a wave that was towering some distance out to sea, about to break. Just before Spyro hit it, he bent his head down, exposing his horns to a head-on collision. He flew straight through the wave and come flying out the other side. He beat her wings hard to rise up before crashing into the water behind the wave, and flew back up to Cynder.  
"Yeah boy, that was fun!" said Spyro. He was exhilarated at the experience, but was also delighted to see Cynder having fun, they had always been in situations of distress or potential harm where they had to fight to survive, and to see Cynder having fun for the first time was nice, thought Spyro. It exposed a little-known happier, playful side in her.  
"Hey, look at this!" Spyro called out to Cynder. He flew away from the cliff, further out to sea, and also higher above the water, so that his shadow that was being cast on the cliff face had become monstrously big compared to Cynder's. The shadow of his tail alone was longer than Cynder's whole body length, and his wing's shadow would have covered over all of Cynder's shadow easily.  
Cynder looked up at Spyro flying, and felt that strange feeling overcoming her again, all of a sudden. This was bugging her now.  
Sparx looked at them with an eye of distaste. "Well, while you two lovebirds were having fun, look what I found!"

They landed on a pebbly beach which had recently materialized below them, at the base of the cliffs. A large pile of rocks leaning against the base of the cliff where Sparx indicated appeared to have been moved there recently, as though they were deliberately put there to hide something.  
"That was very observant of you, Sparx" said Spyro to Sparx. Sparx looked proud of himself.  
"Maybe there was a rock fall from higher up the cliff?" Cynder suggested. "Or perhaps someone has blocked up their home entrance?"  
"I don't know…" said Spyro. He walked around the rocks, and then made up his mind. He turned to Cynder and said "Can you breathe fire on these rocks?"  
Cynder opened her mouth and breathed lava-hot fire onto the rocks, until they were glowing a faint red colour. But Spyro was then stuck. He couldn't breathe ice. He had intended to change the rock's temperature suddenly, to weaken it. Then Spyro thought of an idea, and dove into the sea and used his wings to fling water from the sea onto the rocks. It had worked, cracks appeared on the rock's surface.  
Spyro returned to the rocks and meleed them, and they all shattered, revealing an entrance into a gloomy-looking cave. He approached the entrance cautiously.  
"Huh, I see someone's done their Physics homework" said Sparx.  
"Be careful," Spyro said quietly. "We don't know what may be waiting for us in here."


	4. Chapter 4 The idiosyncratic Limista

To save you's from having to reach for a dictionary, 'idiosyncratic' means 'peculiar to the individual', or 'eccentric'.

Chapter 4 – The idiosyncratic Limista

The cave was wet with condensation, or water seeping out of the cave walls, Spyro couldn't tell. But there was a leafy vine, with red and purple flowers, covering the walls and roof of the cave, even though after a while, there was no sunlight to sustain them. But Spyro could see, at the very end of the tunnel, a faint glimmer of white light. The path itself was also lit up by large white crystals sticking out of the ground at intervals, holding gems. The glow of the crystals was reflected in the fine film of water that was still covering Spyro's and Cynder's scales, causing them to glitter like diamonds eerily, particularly in Cynder's case, where the white shiny light reflections contrasted sharply against the black scales.  
Cynder slipped on the wet stone and crashed flat out on the ground, breaking a large pearly crystal that her head hit on her way down. Spyro turned around awkwardly in the small passage and walked back to Cynder.  
"Are you ok?" he asked in a gentle voice.  
"I'm okay, Spyro" she said, but her shaky voice betrayed her. "well, my knees hurt, and my chin hit that crystal there pretty hard, so I suppose it hurts a bit too."  
"Chin? Don't you mean your beak?" Sparx said.  
"Shh! C'mon Cynder, I'll help you up." Said Spyro.  
He positioned himself besides Cynder, and pushed himself against her with his body, pushing her to her feet. It was hard work, as both of their hides were slippery with water. Cynder's scales tingled at the touch of Spyro's scales, as well as with her wings when Spyro's wings accidentally brushed ever so gently against them, and her brain was once again filled with wonderment at what her feelings at these weird moments meant.  
"Great, we'll need those," murmured Spyro, moving away from Cynder to look at the plethora of different coloured gems that had scattered when Cynder broke the crystal. The three friends drew these into their bodies and kept walking. The sound of the pounding waves disappeared long before they walked cautiously into the room at the end of the tunnel.

They had walked into a large underground cavern. It had a low ceiling though, even lower than that of the cave path leading to it, and it was illuminated a blinding bright blue-white colour by all of the crystals that adorned the sides of the cavern. The walls here were covered in the flowering vine as well, except for a couple of cleared areas, where indistinct scratches had been etched into the rock. It looked like a feeble attempt at art, though it also looked like a series of indistinct scratches and lines. There were medium sized rocks scattered around the edges in between the crystals, and the bloody remains of a meal in the corner.  
Squatting in the other corner, with her back to her, was a plump orange dragon, who was muttering away to something, or perhaps to herself. Spyro couldn't tell her age as he couldn't see her face. She had a double set of spikes running parallel down her back, one row on either side of her spine.  
Sparx flew into the room behind the dragons and his eyes fell on the orange dragon in the corner. "Woah, first there was purple, red, yellow, blue and green and black, and now orange! You guys come in all colours of the rainbow, don't you's?"  
She turned around, and now they could see her face better. She had a flatter face than most dragons, which along with her weight, gave the slight impression of her looking like a pig, were it not for the two short horns on top of her head bending forward and a small stub of a horn just behind and between her nostrils. Spyro guessed her age at around 19. Her face lit up at the sight of the two dragons and dragonfly, and she greeted them.  
"Oh, hello! Sorry about that, I'm a bit deaf, you know. After a long time of being in here listening to nothing but yourself talking to these rocks, your ears kinda stop working. And these rocks don't say much back."  
"Hey Limista, sorry to intrude. My name is Spyro…"  
"Ah yes, I've heard of you! How do you do?"  
"Fine, thanks. That's Sparx glittering over there…"  
"Charming," Limista said grinning at Sparx, then she looked at Spyro, her eyes narrowing. "I'll say, what's that thing on the end of your tail?" she Limista, pointing a claw at Spyro's tail.  
"Oh, that's just part of my tail… err…"  
Limista harrumphed. "Looks like an icecream cone. An icecream cone not quite the same colour as a leaf that rusty reddish hue yet that we define as being an autumn leaf, but the colour of a golden leaf with the green chlorophyll sucked out of it, beginning to dry up and wither, cracks appearing near it's edges."  
"Um, thanks for the details," said Spyro, waving his purple tail out of sight of Limista, and feeling uncomfortable at the attention she was now paying to his body details. "And this…" he continued, motioned his head at Cynder, his horns nearly scratching against the low roof, "is Cynder."  
"You're the dark black dragon?"  
Cynder looked like she was at a loss at how to respond, but answered.  
"Yes… I was, but…"  
"You need to go. You need to be finished" Limista said threateningly.  
She approached Cynder with an air of silent anger about her. Cynder looked scared, but held her ground. Spyro jumped in front of Cynder, knees bent, ready for any potential fight. Instinct had kicked into him, and it warned him of a threat to Cynder.  
"She isn't like that anymore, Limista." Spyro said in a low voice. "She has shed her past and proved herself to us beyond doubt that she is with us."  
"Oh, well that's ok then!" she said brightly, as though nothing had happened. She turned to a smooth, dark rock in the corner of her cavern, and began to move her talons back and forth across the surface of this rock, as though sharpening them. Spyro and Sparx exchanged a look. How weird.  
Spyro tried to think of something, a nice compliment, anything to break the ice. "Er, your talons look very long…"  
"WHAT? I SPEND ALL MY WAKING HOURS SHARPENING THEM, AND ALL YOU'VE GOT TO SAY ABOUT THEM IS THAT THEY'RE _LONG? _ISTHAT'S THE FIRST AND ONLY THING YOU CAN SAY ABOUT THEM? HOW ABOUT SAYING HOW _SHARP_ THEY ARE, HOW THEY COULD SLICE THROUGH YOUR HIDE WITH THE EFFORT OF A MERE SCRATCH? DO YOU KNOW JUST HOW MUCH SHARPENING IT TOOK ME TO GET IT LIKE THAT? AND DON'T EVEN INSINUATE THAT YOU KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT SHARP TALONS!" Limista spat, her face contorted in fury.  
"I didn't mean that, Limista." Spyro said in the same low voice he used before, completely and utterly bemused "I was going to say just that before you interrupted me.  
"Oh, ok!" she said suddenly sounding sweet again, and returned to her stone that she was using to sharpen her claws.  
"I've been stuck in this cave for so long that I've lost track of time. News is slow coming to me here. I've only really had these rocks to talk to," she motioned to a couple of rocks lying around the cavern, and Spyro and Sparx exchanged another look. "I've been hiding so that Malefor wouldn't find me and put my special powers to use for his own benefit. I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier Cynder, but Volteer and Cyril never said anything about you switching sides…"  
Spyro was about to ask about Limista's power, but the mention of the Guardians drove that from his mind. "What? Cyril and Volteer? They were here? When?" Spyro asked eagerly.  
"Oh, about two weeks ago. I believe that red one, Ignitus, sent them here to the mainland. They were looking for news on what was going on here. Oh, I had fun with them…" her face grinned evilly at this point.  
"Well, if you find arguments with everyone you meet fun, then whatever." said Sparx.  
Cynder said nothing, but just continued to sit in the corner awkwardly, swishing her tail nervously and trying to look as small as possible. She did not find this situation very comfortable, following Limista's outburst. Was this what everyone who didn't know any better thought of her now?  
"It's just _so_ dull hiding in here. These caves have no beauty, nothing compared to my real home, before those filthy apes ran it over. It's high set, and it's full of all these funny Konkas and Specromas and all sorts of animals. Would you like to hear about my home?  
"Err, thanks, but no thanks." Spyro muttered. "But speaking of beauty, how did you get these flowering plants to survive in here? There's no sunlight for them."  
"Ohh… _that._" Limista approached one of the vines on the cave wall, spread her wings wide and closed her eyes. Then the cave lit up with a green glow as threads of green light ran through the air between Limista's chest plates and the vine's trunk, connecting them. After a few seconds, the light threads faded, and all around them, scraping noises could be heard, as the vines twisted in place, sprouting new leaves, rejuvenating flowers, sending out new shoots across the cave wall.  
"That is called _bloom_, it's a _special_ technique of mine that lets me rejuvenate plants like these vines, and animals and things back to full health." she said, beaming. "I am a bloom dragon, you see, just as Ignitus is a fire dragon, Volteer is an electric dragon, and so on. But I am not a guardian myself, no siree."  
"That's neat! Can you heal injuries doing that?" Spyro inquired.  
"Sure I can."  
"Could you restore my magical abilities?"  
Limista glanced at Spyro with an appraising look, and finally said, motioning towards Cynder, "You wouldn't have been much use to your friend over there before if I fought you, would've ya?"  
Spyro shook his head. "But I had to try."  
She sighed, and walked up to stand before Spyro, closing her eyes as she did before, and spreading her wings wide open. Spyro felt a curious sensation on his chest, he couldn't tell if it was warm or cold, but it tickled slightly. The green threads appeared, connecting Spyro's and Limista's chests. Spyro then felt as though his body was filling up with something, and he spread his wings in sudden surprise, but he couldn't define what it was. The threads of light energy faded away, and Spyro turned to a rock lying nearby, and breathed flames on it.  
"Woohoo!" Spyro exclaimed in joy. He glanced at his friends, Sparx was clapping, Cynder was smiling and looking proud of him. He turned back to Limista, and gave his gratitude.  
"Thanks, Limista. You've no idea what that means to me."  
"Oh, don't mention it. But you'd better apologise to that rock now. You've burnt it."  
"Err, what?"  
Spyro was confused once again. But he decided to drop it and ask another question.  
"Can you teach me that technique?"  
"No." Her answer was immediate and emphatic. "To teach you Bloom, to give it to you in addition to the myriad of other abilities that there are, as well as the ones you already have, would concentrate so much power into one dragon that I would be making the same mistakes that the Guardian dragons made with the Malefor, and therefore I refuse. Having said that though, you will probably discover it yourself eventually, being the purple thingy that you are."  
Spyro changed tack, recognizing defeat when he saw it.  
"Limista, why don't you come with us? You're in danger here, Malefor's guys will be coming in here soon, looking for you. They know your position."  
Limista sighed again, and finally folded her wings up against her body. "Eh. I've known that for a while. They've already called in to say hi," she nodded at the bloody carcasses lying in the corner, "and I've made a meal out of them."  
Cynder walked over to the carcass lying against the wall. "This was Milky the Hungry," she said, "he used to be based at Dante's Freezer."  
"Funny you should know that, eh?" said Limista. She joined Cynder at her side and dragged a talon through the blood that puddled next to the carcass and sucked it. "Mmmm, that gravy tastes good"  
"Err… excuse me?" said Cynder.  
"Gravy. It's good."  
"But…" Cynder was at a loss again, "but that's blood!"  
"Nonsense. It tastes just like gravy."  
"I don't understand… you know we've all got blood in us."  
"Yeah, but I know what gravy tastes like, and this tastes like gravy, so it's gravy. Have you tried some?"  
"No, but –"  
"Have you tasted to see if it really is blood?"  
"No, I don't need to, I know –" Cynder smiled, she was finding this amusing as well as ludicrous.  
"Then how can you prove your point?" Limista retorted.  
Cynder and Limista debated the point, while Sparx and Spyro looked at each other for a third time, shaking their heads in amusement. She really was a nutter.

When they had finished their debate (agreeing to disagree), Limista turned to Spyro and said "Anyway, I tell you what. I'll go back with you wherever you're going if you go and find a friend for me, and bring here here."  
"What does he or she look like?"  
"_She!_ Well she's a Wind dragon, and has grey scales. She was formerly being held prisoner by Gaul, being tortured for information on the plans and movements of the other Dragons, particularly the Guardian dragons. Back then, some of the Guardians had just been killed off, but four remained. Zeph, yes that's her name, and to repeat myself, she was found in her hiding place, captured and tortured for information on the identity, location and plans of the remaining four Guardians, which she had met previously, I'll let her tell you the details. She conceded the relevant information, as she didn't have the willpower to resist the torturing, and that led to the capture of the Guardians for an eventual plan to sap their energy…" Spyro glanced at Cynder quickly while Limista talked, Cynder was looking at Limista with a sad expression, "and when the majority of the Apes were away fighting to capture the Guardians, she escaped through the Ape's weakened guard and has been in hiding ever since. I learned all this from parrots that have flown past my cave. They said she's hiding back in her old hiding place somewhere to the inland a bit, in a magical forest of sorts."  
"That's… that's terrible, Limista."said Spyro, looking over at Cynder, who was frozen and not saying a word.  
"It changed her. She used to be full of confidence and self-esteem, but now she is a shadow of her former self, although she still possesses elements of that happy nature about her."  
"Right. We'll go see to her and bring her back here. You'll be here when we get back, right?"  
"Sure as gold. I'd come but I need some time to pack," she motioned around the cavern, where there appeared to be very few personal possessions to pack, "and then I'll be waitin' here for ya!"  
Limista escorted them through the slippery passageway to the cave entrance, where the sun blinded their eyes. The sight of the rocks at the entrance broken into fragments, however, seemed to move Limista.  
"Nooo! You've destroyed my entrance! That took so long to m-make…" she became incoherent as she burst into tears.  
Sparx flew over to Spyro's ear, and muttered "She's gone fruit-loop, being in that cave for so long with no-one to talk to but her rocks."  
"I think she was always a bit nutty to begin with, Sparx."


	5. Edit details for Chapter 4

Changes to Chapter 4 (this is not a chapter itself)

My apologies to all, but I changed a section of Chapter 4 on 25 August 2008 at 11:07pm GMT+10. That's what happens when you start writing the story before you finish working out the end of the plot (silly me). Anyway, the following section in chapter 4 was deleted:

"Back then, some of the Guardians had just been killed off, but four remained. Zeph, yes that's her name, conceded information on the eggs that were being raised, as she didn't have the willpower to resist the torturing, and that led to the first attack on the Dragon Temple. When the majority of the Apes were fighting there, she escaped through the Apes' weakened guard and has been in hiding like me ever since. She's hiding somewhere to the inland a bit, in a magical forest of sorts."  
"That's… that's terrible, Limista. It sounds like what Cynder was put through," said Spyro, looking over at Cynder, who was frozen and not saying a word.

…and that section was replaced with the following section…

"Back then, some of the Guardians had just been killed off, but four remained. Zeph, yes that's her name, and to repeat myself, she was found in her hiding place, captured and tortured for information on the identity, location and plans of the remaining four Guardians, which she had met previously, I'll let her tell you the details. She conceded the relevant information, as she didn't have the willpower to resist the torturing, and that led to the capture of the Guardians for an eventual plan to sap their energy…" Spyro glanced at Cynder quickly while Limista talked, Cynder was looking at Limista with a sad expression, "and when the majority of the Apes were away fighting to capture the Guardians, she escaped through the Ape's weakened guard and has been in hiding ever since. I learned all this from parrots that have flown past my cave. They said she's hiding back in her old hiding place somewhere to the inland a bit, in a magical forest of sorts."  
"That's… that's terrible, Limista."said Spyro, looking over at Cynder, who was frozen and not saying a word.

Of course, if you've started reading this story after 25 August, this won't matter to you. Sorry again! Chapter 5 will be posted soon-ish.


	6. Chapter 5 Meeting Zephyros

For some stupid reason, has been repeating the first sentence in my chapters. I've fixed this up, hopefully it won't do it again.

Thanks for your reviews, burningoil1194, cazcat and SOADjoe19. I'm pleased you's think so nicely of it. :)

Chapter 5 – Meeting Zephyros

"Where in the name of the ancestors are we?" Spyro said softly.  
They had arrived in a hot, thick forest after flying inland from the coast for two hours, but they had not expected a forest like this. There were red mushrooms adorned with white spots everywhere, and trees at least ten times their own height, with leaves of all different colours as well, not just the usual green, but purple, orange, blue, red and yellow. But that wasn't the most curious thing. There was music and song permeating the air from all areas of the forest, as though the forest's inhabitants had all taken to singing and performing at once. Spyro wished Limista had given them more specific directions than just telling them to go to some random forest to find a dragon.  
"Since when did _you_ care about Ancestors?" asked Sparx.  
"No need to be disrespectful, Sparx," said Cynder reproachfully, but gently. She joined Spyro's side and looked around with him.  
They walked around the corner of a clump of trees, and then stopped in surprise.  
In a small clearing was a group of fauns that were singing a beautiful melody, their clear voices carrying far and wide. A short distance away from there, different species of crickets were rubbing their wings to make a chirping song comprising of different scratchy notes. It was nothing like the chirping of crickets found elsewhere, and was hypnotizing.  
"Oh, I can do that," said Sparx dismissively at the Crickets. "I can draw the crowds anytime I want…"  
Spyro laughed. "Yeah, sure Sparx. I think only Crickets can do that."  
But an even bigger surprise came shortly after that, with the sight of a small black bear holding a flute and playing a fast solo song to a small flowery shrub. The shrub's flowers themselves seemed to be opening and closing as the notes of the flute became higher and lower. Spyro approached the bear slowly and cautiously. He was about the same size as it, but he preferred not to engage in a fight if he could avoid it.  
"Err… excuse me?"  
The bear stopped playing and looked at Spyro with a look of one who had been slapped on the cheek.  
"Sorry to interrupt you, I was wondering if you knew where Zeph lived… could you help us please?" Spyro swished his tail in nervousness, brushing dead leaves aside. The bear stared at Spyro for a second, then gave a great roar of annoyance before picking up his flute and stalking away. Spyro didn't even know if the bear had understood him, but it didn't take much to know that the bear didn't think much of being interrupted. The flowers, meanwhile, hung on the shrub closed up tightly, as though doleful that the bear had left. Spyro returned to the other two, tail hanging low, his failure to get help buzzing in his head.  
Cynder began sniffing the air tenderly. They all smelled first, and soon saw, a group of furry Apes through the multi-coloured trees in front of them. Due to the tropical heat here, many of them were only wearing loincloths, exposing their smelly fur to pong the air for many metres around. Cynder, of course, had picked up on the scent first because of her previous association with the Apes.  
Upon sighting the Dragons, they jumped and chattered in excitement before running through the trees towards them. Spyro immediately jumped into action, breathing a massive flame onto the trees and the Apes that were appearing in the gaps between them. The flames were huge, and shot out with cyclonic speed. The Apes ran and jumped around aflame and squealed in pain before dropping to the ground dead. A heap of gems appeared on the ground around the trees. Spyro marveled at how powerful his renewed flame ability was. There were more noises drifting through the now-burning trees.  
"Looks like you've just attracted more trouble, hot breath." Sparx stated.  
Spyro decided to try his electric breath this time. As soon as a monkey poked his head between the trees, his black furry cheeks painted with red stripes, Spyro aimed a thunderbolt at them. It was much more powerful that what Spyro was used to, nearly lost control of it. The monkey was sent flying, and the thunderbolt now hit another tree that was next to the monkey, causing a massive cracking sound as the trunk split into two.  
"Woah…" said Spyro softly. "Limista knows her stuff."  
Even more chattering noises drifted through the trees now, there was obviously quite a number of primates here.  
"Do you mind if I try?" said Cynder suddenly.  
Spyro and Sparx looked at her in surprise, but quickly said yes, of course she could. Cynder stepped forward and faced the final three Apes that had now made their appearance, one of whom was holding an unlit Dynamite stick and was wearing red and blue clothes, and a hat with three long feathers sticking out of it, similar to some Apes at Tall Plains. Cynder lunged forward and breathed a thick purple gas into their faces. The Apes breathed the gas in and blundered around stupidly before falling over and writhing and squirming in distress. They had all been poisoned, except for one clever Ape, the one wearing the clothes and the Dynamite, who had held his breathe and had now ignited the stick of Dynamite in his hand. Cynder jumped in the air and whirled around in a circle, and the sharp scythe embedded into the end of her tail sliced across the Apes chest, the Dynamite falling from his hand, and he fell along with his comrades. The explosion of Dynamite right next to them completed the job. Spyro stepped forward, looking at Cynder in admiration.  
"That… that was impressive, Cynder!" Spyro praised her.  
"Err, yeah whatever you think. She took ages to take them out compared to you." said Sparx.  
"Sparx, what's got into you lately? You've seemed crueler towards her lately than ever before." Said Spyro.  
"It doesn't matter, Spyro. Thanks for the compliment, though." Cynder said quietly with a smile.  
"Excuse me, do you mind blowing up half the forest and creating such a noisy ruckus? We're trying to play here." said a voice to Spyro's left.  
A brown female Kangaroo was clutching a long wooden pipe underneath a small tree, glaring at them as though daring them to continue fighting and making noise.  
Sparx looked at her with a general dislike. "Oh, I'm so sorry we disturbed you. We'll just stand by and get attacked, will we?"  
"G'day to you too." she replied.  
"Hey. My name's Spyro, and this is Cynder and Sparx."  
"The name's Abbey."  
"Why didn't those Apes attack you? Why don't you kick them out?"  
"Oh, well they sorta snuck in, the cheeky buggers. They seemed to take over the place for their own, but they didn't create too much fuss and they left us alone, so we didn't care, really."  
"What are you doing? Is that an instrument as well?" asked Spyro.  
"I _was_ playing it. It's a Didgeridoo. But not my own, it belongs to another 'Roo called Sheila, who I'm fillin' in for while she's visiting her sick Aunt. I don't actually live here, I just come here from time to time when Sheila wants a break from playing. But can I help ya's at all? Before you started beatin' the crap outta them overgrown baboons, you looked kind of lost."  
"Yeah, we're looking for Zeph. She kind of looks like us… I think." Spyro said, realizing now that Limista had actually not given them a description of her.  
"Well that's not much bloody use to me. You and her alone look completely different, so you'd be asking me to look at a maggot and a fly and say they look the same."  
Abbey reached into the pouch on her tummy and pulled out a damp mouldy-looking map. Sparx pulled a face, disgusted that such things that were in her pouch turned yucky like that. Unfolding it, she said "You'll want to visit Windy Hill. In the past Dragons used to go there and summon one of your lot that lives here, from that hill somehow. Buggers me how they do it, though." They looked down on the map, which was titled quite aptly 'Magical Forest'. She pointed to the position on the map, marked 'Windy Hill'. She also pointed out their current location, marked as 'Sheila's busking location', and folded the map back up again.  
"Sorry about the fires," said Spyro, looking over at the trees that were ablaze and crackling nearby with blue flames that had started burning on the upper blue leaves of the trees. "and thanks for you help, err…um…"  
"It's Abbey! Get it right. And don't worry about the fire, we get 'em all the time where I come from. And the flames are blue 'coz of the chemicals in the leaves."  
"…Abbey. Thanks."  
They continued walking, and as they did, they heard the low haunting sound of the Didgeridoo beginning behind them.  
"Wow, she's pretty feisty for a female…"  
"Even more than you, you think?" Cynder joked. She seemed to be making more jokes with Sparx, as though hoping to improve the icy relationship between them. But her comments fell on deaf ears.  
They kept walking through the trees, the gaps of which were narrowing now, meaning they had to crunch their wings up tight to squeeze past. They heard some Chamber music in the distance, thought they didn't see who was making it, and they also wandered past a cat playing an improvised Harp that had been made by tying a heap of strings between two trees, and having them each string at a different tightness. It was a very funny sight for the dragons and the dragonfly. It truly was a magical place.  
"Where do you want to go, when we find Zeph and all go back to Limista, Spyro?" asked Cynder, after a while.  
"I'd like to go back to the Dragon Temple. After what Limista said about Cyril and Volteer, I'm thinking they've all gone back there." Answered Spyro. But in truth, he wanted to see Ignitus the most. Spyro missed his guidance and words of wisdom.

Eventually the sound of the different types of music faded away as the trees thinned and they came to the base of a grassy open hill. Upon making it to the top of the hill, they found not only a good view of the forest around them, but also nothing but a heap of hollow pipes sticking out of the ground, all lined up in a row, all at different lengths. The ends of the pipes were exposed to the sky, and there were some small holes along the length of each pipe, as well. In front of each pipe was a large flat block of concrete, and imprinted into each of these blocks was a symbol of a tree being pushed over by wind, together with a number, such as one, two etc. They were absolutely baffled.  
"Well, what do you think we do now?" Spyro asked Cynder and Sparx.  
"HELLOOOOOOOOOOO ZEPH!" called out Sparx at the top of his lungs, but his low voice didn't carry far.  
Spyro repeated Sparx's call. There was no answer.  
"I know! Why don't you try meleeing those blocks? Maybe the blocks are like those blocks at that place where those tribe people worship us, you know, the blocks that you had to whack with your tail to make something happen?"  
"You mean Tall Plains?" Spyro looked at the pipes thoughtfully. "Well I'll give it a go"  
Spyro jumped into the air swift as a Tiger, and swung himself around and hit the top of one of the blocks. But again, nothing happened. Total silence. Spyro then jumped up again and kicked one of the pipes that was sticking up at the end of the row. Chips of wood went flying everywhere, but then nothing happening, nothing at all.  
The sun beat down on them. The grass was itchy. And they were getting frustrated. What were they supposed to do to summon Zeph? Were they even in the right place? Sparx flew inside one of the pipes, only to fly out again quickly when he saw some rather hungry large mouthed frogs living in it.  
"Maybe we have to blow into them and play them like Abbey did with her Didgeridoo," said Spyro, thinking aloud, looking at the symbol on top of the block. "but we can't play the Didgeridoo, nor I think can other Dragons, so I don't think that can be right…  
Cynder gazed at the pipes, frowning slightly. Then she brightened, and looked at the other two.  
"Well, isn't it obvious? This is Windy Hill, which is located in the Musical Forest. These pipes obviously have something to do with both of those things. Do you see?"  
"Um, I'm afraid not Cynder." said Spyro. Cynder began pacing up and down in front of the row of irregularly sized pipes.  
"I think all these pipes are one large musical instrument. I think that when the wind blows, the wind causes all these pipes to all make a note, each different-length pipe making a different sounding note, and all at the same time. That's what normally happens, anyway, but there's no wind right now. If a dragon ever wanted to summon Zeph, however, that dragon should stand on each of these blocks, one at a time, and use their wings to create a gust of air over the pipe next to the concrete block, one at a time, in the order marked by the numbers on the concrete blocks. Doing that might create some sort of song that Zeph hears and recognizes. It's all related to 'Windy' Hill, and 'Musical' Forest. Also, we've been told Zeph is a 'Wind' dragon. What do you think?"  
Spyro was amazed at Cynder's intelligence. He would have taken a lot longer to work that out. He voiced this to Cynder, who blushed, although Spyro didn't see this because of her dark coloured scales.  
"Should I try it now?" Cynder asked.  
"I can do it Cynder. You did all that thinking, I can do the work." said  
Spyro.  
"All right, tough guy." Cynder laughed.  
"Oh boy, this I gotta see." said Sparx.  
Spyro mounted the block marked '1' that was sitting in front of the first pipe. He jumped up into the air and beat his wings hard, in the direction of the pipe. He nearly fell backwards off the block. But there was a loud, resonating musical note that sounded briefly while the gust from Spyro's wing passed over it.  
Spyro quickly leapt over to the block marked '2', and repeated his wing beating. This pipe produced a much higher note than the last. Spyro repeated this funny little performance on each of the blocks in the order of the numbers, until he had finished and wandered through the green grass over to the group.  
"I never knew how tiring that would be. Jumping and flapping vertically like that takes a lot of energy."  
Sparx looked up at the sun. "It might be the heat. Just chill out."  
They waited in silence. The sun continued to beat down them, and they were getting faint snatches of music from the forest surrounding the bottom of the hill. The view from here was queer, as each different tree top was a different colour, as opposed to the sea of green they were used to viewing.  
Then there was rustling through the green grass to their right. A creature a little smaller than them was making its way up the hill towards them. At first view, it looked very similar to Hunter. It had spots on it, like Hunter, and the ears were similar. But it appeared to be more dog-like than cat-like. Was it some sort of hybrid between a Dog and a Cheetah?  
It sat down a few feet from them and looked at each of them in turn, as though judging them. Then he asked, in a deep growly voice: "Are you here to see Zephyros?"  
"What kind of a creature are you?" Sparx asked.  
"A Hyena." Answered the Hyena simply.  
"Yes, we're here to see Zeph…" Spyro asked hopefully.  
The Hyena hardly moved. It was as though he was dared not to blink so much as an eyelash, but this wasn't a dare. "We've designed this system so that we can see if it is friends or foes who are summoning her, and that gives us a chance to drive the foes away before they get their hands on Zephyros."  
"No! We don't her any harm. We've come to ask her to come back with us to Limista… if you know who she is." Spyro said.  
Now the Hyena did blink. "She is resting, as she has been doing so a lot lately. It pains her to move around excessively, so I have come to take you to her. Come."  
The nameless Hyena then turned and made it's way back down to the bottom of the hill and into the forest. Spyro, Sparx and Cynder hurried to follow.  
"Do you think we should trust him?" Cynder asked Spyro, before they had caught up to him. "He looks like the type of guy who could eat us for dinner."  
"Cynder, we'll be able to take him easily if he does that. Don't worry. I'll protect you."  
They eventually came to the edge of a swamp. The Hyena, being small and nimble, was able to walk along a row of logs that kept his paws out of the water. Spyro and Cynder took one look at this, and decided to just wade through. Sparx stuck his tongue out, flying past them.  
Mushrooms were abundant here, sticking out of mossy tree trunks and little earthy islands that popped up here and there. A song that was being made by different types of frogs croaking different notes could be heard, but they were unable to see where the frogs were. Probably hiding in hollow tree trunks.  
When they had all come to the other side of the swamp, the two dragons had a layer of silt and other particles covering the lower part of their bodies. This was harder to see on Cynder, with her dark coloured scales.  
The Hyena began running all of a sudden, and jumped high, leaping clear over a brush of ferns and small shrubby trees that was blocking their way.  
Spyro and Cynder couldn't jump that far, they weighed too much. The trees were too close for them to flutter over using their wings, so they were forced to walk right over the thicket of shrubs and ferns. The small branches caught on the edges of their wings, and twigs cracked under their talons as they soldiered on through until they came out on the other side, Sparx sniggering at them all the way.  
A sleeping female dragon about the same size as Spyro himself came into view, in a small leafy clearing in the middle of some trees. The clearing was also surrounded by the very ferns Spyro and Cynder had just pushed through, making a good hiding place. She had light grey scales, but it was hard to tell if that was because that was their natural colour, or because of the dirt that was caked on them. Spyro also thought she had dark red stripes until he looked closer and found that it was caked blood, where it had run down her body from wounds higher up on her. Five short spikes stuck out of her back along her spine, between her neck and tail, and the end of her tail had a fan-like membrane attached to it, that was currently folded up to appear small while not in use. Perhaps it had a function when she wanted to use her wind abilities? She appeared so starved that Spyro also half suspected he would be able to see her ribs, were it not for her very large wings that were draping over her sides, covering them in a relaxed posed. The wings themselves had holes in the thin membrane, and a horrible red, wrinkled scarring surrounding the periphery of each hole. Two small fangs stuck out of either side of her mouth, which was open slightly in a light snore. Two short but sharp straight horns stuck out horizontally from her head, in the same spot where Spyro's horns were. And one of her eyes was covered with a black eye-patch. Spyro thought that if it not for the fact that she looked like she had been to hell and back, she would be a beautiful young dragon. They all stared at her, taking in her various injuries and wondering just what treatment she had been put through.  
The Hyena woke her with a gentle scratch on her neck, and she opened her eyes blearily. Spyro, Cynder and Sparx waited, unsure if she was a dragon that liked being woken suddenly from slumber. The dragon blinked a couple of times, then the eye that wasn't covered with the eye patch fell on the company standing on the edge of her clearing.  
"Some 'friends' wanted to see you, Zephyros."  
She had a surprisingly soft voice, but one brimming with happiness.  
"Come on, I told you that you can call me Zeph, you ragamuffin."  
She gave her thanks, and the Hyena bowed with respect, turned and jumped gracefully over the brushy barricade again. Zeph turned to Spyro, Cynder and Sparx.  
"Forgive me if I've caused you's to lose your voices. My name's Zeph. Well, Zephyros as you heard, but for the love of all our friends, there's no need to call me that. I'm not _that_ formal. Anyway, I'm very pleased to meet you!" she grinned at them.  
"I'm Spyro, this is Cynder, and that's Sparx." Zeph nodded at everyone in turn.  
"How did your trip here go? You must have had an interesting time finding me." Zeph said.  
"It's has been interesting, I guess, like you said. We've been looking for you, to see if you want to come back with us. A friend of yours, Limista, is waiting for you." said Spyro.  
"No, we came to _take_ you back, not see if you _wanted_ to come. I didn't fly all this way, nuh-uh." said Sparx.  
"Limista!" she squealed. "Oh my, I haven't seen her in ages! How is she doing?"  
Cynder answered her. "It's hard to tell. How is she normally?"  
"Oh, yes, heehee. She can be a bit of a fruit loop at times. But she does have quite a personality, don't you think? I'd fly to her, but the membrane around the punctures in my wing stings like crazy when the wind whistles madly through them, and as for her, well, err…" Zeph was obviously looking for a kind way to describe her weight problem.  
"… she's too fat to fly, we gathered that." Finished Sparx.  
"Yeah. I would nearly die just to be able to fly again without discomfort, my wings didn't grow like this without a reason. I'm a Wind dragon, you see, so my big wings are like this so I can do my abilities better than just a dragon that can do wind along with other abilities, but isn't purely a wind dragon. Sorry if I lost ya in all that!" Zeph said.  
"What happened to you? Why are you hurt like that, with all those wounds?" inquired Spyro, looking over her injuries and the holes in her wings.  
"Oh, erm –" Zeph looked a little downcast now. "That was punishment given to me for disobeying orders from someone. I don't really know why they aren't healing after all this time, but with time they should be ok. And I'm just dirty because I have to walk through that feral swamp, and it hasn't rained to wash the dirt off. Thanks for your concern, though."  
"Did Gaul or his servants give them to you?" said Spyro quietly.  
Zeph looked at Spyro with a look that meant she hadn't expected them to know the details. She looked down to the ground, and Spyro wondered awkwardly if he had probably said something wrong. This feeling was intensified when Spyro saw a tear well out of her eye and make its way down her scaly cheek.  
"You don't have to answer that, I'm sor-" but Spyro was interrupted as Zeph burst into speech, still lying on the ground.  
"They had captured me. I was … their prisoner, their informant… I was captured one night when they raided this forest, where I was hiding. It was a cloudy night, and I couldn't see a thing. They took me back to an underground lair," Zeph's voice began to shake as she went on, "and locked my arm to a chain that was bolted to the wall…" she rubbed her left wrist subconsciously with her right paw. "They kept asking me, over and over, who the Guardian dragons were, where they were located, how they could be overpowered, what their weakness were, everything. I told them I didn't know, but then they began… using force…" she turned her neck and glanced at her injuries, "I just couldn't stand it, they hurt me so much… so I told them all I knew, anything to make them stop, make me escape that hell I was in…"  
Spyro's head exploded with a million questions. Where was she from? How did she know the Guardians? Why wasn't he told of her existence? He looked over at Cynder.  
Cynder had a tear sliding down her face as well. She gazed at Zeph with a miserable expression, then got up and walked over to her, sitting down in front of her and spoke softly.  
"Zeph? It… it's not your fault. It's mine, for what happened to the Guardians. I'm so sorry for what I did…"  
Spyro was surprised, for the umpteenth time this trip. Although Cynder had mentioned her time in her Dark form several times, she had never come this close to talking about her actions or thoughts during that time.  
But Zeph was crying too hard now to hear Cynder.  
"I'm so sorry," sobbed Zeph, sorrow suffusing in her voice, "I really am. But they were hurting me like so, and I… I…"  
"It's ok, Zeph. It's ok, we understand." Spyro and Cynder reassured her over and over.  
After a short time, she had ceased crying, although she was still quite red-eyed. But she was smiling again, and presently she had wrapped one of her wings around both Spyro and Cynder (it was large enough to enclose both of them) and pulled them into a group hug. Spyro was surprised at how happy and willing she was for closeness, despite her just getting over her reliving of her torture, and the fact they were complete strangers. Sparx fluttered nearby, watching the proceedings with a sense of wanting to keep out of the situation in front of him.  
"Thanks a lot, guys. You's make me feel so much better…"  
Zeph folded up her wing again, and Spyro looked at Zeph, burning with a million wonders to ask. He felt exactly how he did when he had first met Ignitus: brimming full of questions. "Err, Zephyros… I mean Zeph… did you come from the eggs in the Dragon Temple originally? Did you grow up here, before you were captured? How do you know Ignitus and the others?"  
"Thanks for asking, but, if it's ok with you, do you mind if I tell you another time?" then she added quickly "Sorry, not to offend you Spyro…" Zeph said cautiously.  
"No, that's ok, Zeph. I don't mind." Spyro said.  
While Zeph was licking her paw, Spyro turned to Cynder and quietly asked her a question about if she was put through the same torture when they were trying to corrupt her. But Cynder was similarly withdrawn to answer.  
"I'll tell you later, Spyro. Maybe at the Dragon Temple when we get back to it." Said Cynder. She really didn't feel comfortable enough yet to reveal those details.  
Zeph finished licking, and turned to Spyro and Cynder. "I guess I can come back with ya's to see Limista. I've always intended to eventually, when I was healed up and flying wasn't so annoying, but hey, she's sent an envoy out to ask me. I'll come."  
"The Dark Master's forces are going to be looking for her near her hiding place. She said she'd come with us and leave her hiding place if you came as well, and we saw some Apes on the other side of the forest as well, so you yourself might also be in danger."  
Zeph darkened for a moment, then said "Well, I guess we'd better make haste. Could you be very kind, and help me up? My legs are a little sore, no less than the rest of me."  
They pushed her to her feet, and she spread out her massive wings. They nearly took the whole clearing, it was clear that she would be a good flyer despite the holes in her wings.  
After taking off and turning in the direction of the mainland coast, Cynder came up close next to Spyro.  
"How could she be how she is after all of that torture? It's so surprising, few can come from that place and still retain their character." Cynder said in a hushed voice.  
"I think she got by in there by simply giving in to whatever demands they made of her. I think, if we got to know her better, she would appear to be quite submissive... But I don't know. She does have the Hyenas to talk to, and all this music to cheer her up. Who knows?"  
Sparx flew up to Spyro and Cynder, and spoke a worry that, until now, the dragons hadn't thought of. "How are we all supposed to go back to the Dragon Temple if that fatso can't fly?"


End file.
